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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Dave Schilling

‘Looksmaxxing’ young men are carving up their faces. Being ugly is a lot easier

Man with face marked with lines for cosmetic surgery
‘The odious trend of ‘looksmaxxing’ is the natural nadir of our collective obsession with not being ugly.’ Photograph: Vadym Drobot/Alamy

Take a second before you read this to look in the mirror. Go on, it’ll be worth it. I’ll be here when you get back.

OK, how’d that go? Did you like what you saw? Probably not. Feeling a bit puffy? See a zit in a conspicuous area? Did you want to punch yourself for the sin of experiencing the natural course of ageing? These feelings are normal. Being disappointed in how you look is a time-honored tradition; it’s just that now, we have the means to fix all that. GLP-1s mean you can lose weight quickly, without doing much more than shoving a needle in your bum a few times a month. Plastic surgery, Botox, fillers, Turkish hair plugs. We live in the golden age of techno-vanity, where “self-improvement” can be had for a few bucks (and days and days of living in bandages like a hipster mummy). The odious trend of “looksmaxxing” is the natural nadir of our collective obsession with not being ugly.

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